Robert McClure reached it from the west in 1850 and was frozen in. A sledge party showed that it was connected to Parry Channel;. However, he never traversed the strait; he declared confidently that the strait did connect over to the already-discovered Channel, and the coordinates he provided for the eastern exit of the strait were accurate. This is generally considered the epochal event of the discovery of the first Northwest Passage (in the geographical sense). It was nonetheless considered ice-bound and unsuitable for navigation. McClure ultimately made it across the Canadian Arctic and made the first circumnavigation of the Americas.
